I participated in and followed early 1:1 initiatives going back to Henrico County in VA and the Maine Learning and Technology Initiative, both taking place in the early 2000s. Henrico did their rollout in high school, while Maine started theirs in middle school. Many lessons from both, with Maine setting the gold standard on deliberately planning and implementing programs to support teachers in adapting their instruction to be enhanced by technology.

In recent years we have had the addition of smartphones into students’ hands, adding even more connectivity into their lives. International schools, especially those in Asia, were also starting 1:1 programs. In time, elementary schools also began the rollout of devices. This trend continues in the US today, with public and independent schools catching the wave.

My blogging and podcasting have been on personal computing devices’ positive collaborative, creative, and connective nature. I offer this simple review of where we were; my concerns about students and their access to devices have been growing, especially with our younger students. While schools develop acceptable use policies, have 1:1 introduction parent nights, and offer digital citizenship lessons, I am concerned that we have much more to do to prepare students to make healthy and responsible technological choices.

What jumps out at me daily is the same picture we see with adults. The picture is of the hunched-over individual viewing a screen, whether sitting alone, walking, or sitting with a group. Much is written about the adverse social and emotional effects upon children and adults regarding technology use, especially around social networks, and what is lost when we are not present in typical social learning situations. Distraction, anxiety, isolation, lack of impulse control, etc., are a few of the byproducts of our digital age.

We now have a generation in their 20s whose experience is of always being connected. Jean Twenge covers this topic in-depth with her book iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood–And What That Means for the Rest of Us. I can see parents and educators reading this book to understand better how technology influences our younger generations. The next step for families and educators is to develop family and school technology and life plans that start with the family’s and school’s mission and values. Action plans can then be created and implemented.

There is also the discussion of how smartphones are diminishing our mental capacities. On his On Point radio show, Tom Ashbrook discussed this topic in a recent episode. We know that personal learning devices can do so much to assist us as learners. How do we help students see the devices as tools they effectively use without the technology controlling the user? One approach is to help students develop their learning system to empower and skill them to use technology positively and positively.

Helping students learn the skills to work with information, create and communicate is at the core of what we instructional technologists and librarians do. Hopefully, this blog and the Ed Tech Co-Op podcast have provided educators with ideas, especially in helping students with what we call Information and Communication Literacies (ICL). What I still need to cover, though, is how to help students in their social and emotional development, especially as we put devices in their hands.

As I am also a guidance counselor, though it has been many years since I wore that hat, I have a few ideas that are probably already in the blogosphere. But as I am considering returning to counseling, my instructional technology skills overlap significantly with what I am guessing counselors are teaching and providing support in their schools. Thus, I will write a series of posts to help me construct a plan for approaching the possibility of a return to guidance counseling.

I have been thinking a great deal about how we are preparing students and helping their parents handle our connected and digital world. I will research what elementary and middle school guidance counselors in my local public school district do in their teaching of students and outreach to parents.

I suspect one big topic centers around social networking as well as cyberbullying. While we instructional technologists develop and teach digital citizenship skills, what does the guidance curriculum look like in elementary and middle school? It is a mistake to think that the technology coach/teacher needs the training, time, or responsibility to be the only leader in developing and teaching curricula to assist students as they learn to make technological decisions. This is especially the case in their social and emotional growth and development. With this point in mind, as I have written before, we might look to drop the digital from “digital citizenship” or go further with the broader term of “life skills” development. Citizenship today incorporates blended face-to-face and virtual connections, but it only covers some aspects of how technology affects our students.

Teaching life skills is an integral part of a guidance counselor’s mission. Now with technology so intertwined into students’ lives, counselors and instructional technologists are partnering to create a shared life skills curriculum for themselves and the teaching staff to teach. Advisory time can provide the structure for teachers, counselors, and instructional technologists to teach a life skills curriculum.

Being overly connected to one’s phone and computer affects the amount of time for exercise, getting outdoors, and sometimes making smart eating and sleeping choices. And if we are genuinely looking at the whole child and their physical, intellectual, emotional, and social growth and development (PIES), we need to expand our instructional team. In that case, we should consider expanding the collaboration to include the PE and Health teachers.

So be on the lookout for posts as I start a new series designated as “Counseling-IT Partnership.”

Image Source